Prayers & Miracles

A little word about prayer and miracles:

Before we left on this adventure to the Ukraine, we reached out to our network of friends and acquaintances for help, and we got in touch with a fantastic young lady we had met at our church, Masha, who is from the Ukraine and  who was able to join us as our aupair. she has been covering the home front and been assisting us with translations, photos to show the kids, room planning, researching schools and mental heath calls for us. She is a grat blessing to us.

Now we are here, and after a bunch of battles with the leadership at the Internaut, we all; the kids, Max (our facilitator) and us were dazed and confused. the kids acting out and resisted English, doubting our intentions and had heard bad things from some of the older kids and caregivers about going to the states. We needed help beyond just meeting with and bonding with the kids. Again a call went out for help, (keep in mind, we have found one native of this fair city who speaks English).

we have had two folks respond immediately come to our aid; Lesya, Heidi's cousin Ben's sister in law, who took the 15 hour train ride to the east to spend her new-years holiday week with us and create peace and love in the kids hearts. She is a theater student in Kiev and fluent in English and has worked with kids in a center near Kiev. I have heard of the concept of "ministry of Presence", she worked quiet miracles with all of us. She has really got us back on the right track.

The next is Vova, Masha's brother,  who has also put his life on hold for us and is on a 20hr overnight train ride now from Izmail (SW corner on Ukraine on the Romanian Border) to Kharkov and a 5 hr bus trip to join us tomorrow. He has worked as a translator on tour ships and currently translates for a Media outlet on-line.

Wile Big Sasha, the Senior facilitator and Max, his point man on this adoption (he rejoins u son the 8th when the courts reopen from new-years holiday) work the hoops to jump through, Lesya and Vova have and are going to help us spend quality time with the kids.

This morning, Little Sasha and Cristina came to Heidi saying " Good Morning my name is Christina and "Good morning my name is Sasha!" IN ENGLISH and gave Heidi a hug. Last week they had gotten to the point of ignoring us and ransacking our bags for gifts (and anything else they could find).

Our prayers for help have been answered by two people of faith, Now with two Internats to shuttle between, we are going to need all the help we can get.

Keep us in your thoghts and prayers

Erik